Appraisers' Free Forum

http://activerain.com/blogsview/640564/countrywide-gets-sued-again-

I think that the first two comments are really interesting:

What about personal responsibility? Did the people not understand that they can not afford the loan?

and

Is there any news of Countrywide or others, going after individual loan officers?

Thanks Steve for the reminder that all of us involved in the sale and mortgaging of real estate who call ourselves professionals have responsibility to ask questions and guide those less familiar than us. Too late, I'm embarrassed to admit, I concluded that my contribution to professionalism, at least with respect to what I have to contribute to the mortgaging of real estate, is to refuse to do it unless the conditions are right. I did appraise for mortgages, but no longer unless I am convinced the lender is employing sound and time honored principles, has "skin in the game", and is concerned about collateral value; the borrowers are fully informed and the agents are accountable, transparent and helpful if there is a buyer involved.

The best indicator I have found of a client who is no longer qualified for my appraisals is when they want it cheap and fast. In my measure that alone gives them a high hurdle to overcome before they are worth talking to. Most I must say are not interestred in trying to overcome it. They seem to be able to find appraisers who don't question them. I don't understand how we got to this point and claim at the same time that independence is a priority.

We've buried enough and there is no good excuse for it. Any of us could have stopped this thing short of the pain and chaos it has caused and we did not. At least I did not, but I am unavailable now or for the next go-round and I'm much, much more particular about who I appraise for. Wish I could say that had always been true, but I can't. Let 'em get it from somebody who doesn't ask questions. I'll just say no and be less financially well off.

I have an example of lender stupidity. It is slightly off topic but I think it is relevant.

GP did an appraisal on a rural property late last week. 80+ acres, house, outbuildings, gas and oil wells (no Terry, he did NOT include those in the value but told the lender we know of a great appraiser who could value them for them ..... be expensive, though )

This lender loves us, although the value came back lower than they expected.

Now they need a review done, rush of course, and the UW decided it was ok for me to do the review.

She then came back to tell me that all their reviews must be ordered through RELS.

I sent her my condolences ..................

Annemieke Roell wrote:
Now they need a review done, rush of course, and the UW decided it was ok for me to do the review.

I'm sorry but that doesn't sit right with me. GP did the appraisal and you were going to do the review?

There is something wrong with that.

Jrs at OBX wrote:

Annemieke Roell wrote:
Now they need a review done, rush of course, and the UW decided it was ok for me to do the review.

I'm sorry but that doesn't sit right with me. GP did the appraisal and you were going to do the review?

There is something wrong with that.

Why? I am perfectly capable of doing an unbiased, USPAP compliant review and our clients know that. Just because we are partners doesn't mean we automatically agree with eachother.

In fact, take a wild guess which review is going to be more solid and reliable .... mine or one done by a $75 fee RELS "reviewer".

So Annemieke, what if the appraisal is a piece of crap?

Annemieke,

There is a thing called "appearance of conflict." Very tough to convincingly overcome and CL named one of the reasons. If the appraisal is crap then not only do you tell the client you tell the board. I wouldn't review one of yours or Greg's for anybody but you guys and I don't even live with you.

What if it is one of those days you are so pissed at Greg you can't even see straight? How do you remain objective about his objectivity when that is going on?

Not a good idea, A. Your client deserves different.

And RELS can rush and suck the hind tit that Landsafe used to use.

I'm not arguing about RELS reviewers. There is no question there.

I'm not even saying that you couldn't objectively review Greg's work. I could appraise my mother's house and I think I could come up with an objective value.

Personally, if I was an underwriter for a bank and I noticed the same company name on the original report and the review of that report, not only would I demand totally new reports but I would seriously consider asking the board for their opinion on the matter. It doesn't look right. You should both know better, especially since you both perform some review functions for the state board. Wouldn't it raise a red flag if you were investigating an appraisal and a review from the same office? You know it would.

Jrs at OBX wrote:I'm not even saying that you couldn't objectively review Greg's work. I could appraise my mother's house and I think I could come up with an objective value.

I did appraise a house my mother, brother, and I owned together one time. It was objective. It was not shortcut. And yes, I fully disclosed the relationship in the report and had their agreement about doing it beforehand. Because it was just for "us" I thought I could do it. However, afterward, what I could see was that I did not have enough credibility (the ordinary kind, not the USPAP kind) when there was a disagreement about what to do next. You can never escape that assumption of bias. And, I learned my lesson... never again. Today, I will not even appraise a property for a close acquaintance. And, as small as my town is, that does cause the loss of some business. It's worth taking the loss of business to avoid the appearance of conflict of interest. IMHO, there is no way you can ever escape that appearance. Also, IMHO, it is not an issue of whether someone else would do a poorer job. The next time I had to have a house my Mother owned appraised, I coughed up the $350 and had another local appraiser do it. Everyone was satisfied, even though I noticed an error in the report (which I kept to myself).

No matter how unbiased you can be, it is very poor practice to review your partner's work and the "appearance" of bias will remain. I'd stay very far away from it. Heck, I won't review anyone's work whom I know better than a passing conversation (unless it is a peer review that we might do ourselves). Just best left to someone else.

Corporate Lackey wrote:No matter how unbiased you can be, it is very poor practice to review your partner's work and the "appearance" of bias will remain. I'd stay very far away from it. Heck, I won't review anyone's work whom I know better than a passing conversation (unless it is a peer review that we might do ourselves). Just best left to someone else.

Generally speaking I do say away from that. But some of our clients finance properties deep inside the oil patch and can't find any other appraisers with rural competence to do it.

I am not saying we do this on a regular basis, but we do have some clients who will ask us to because they know we are unbiased. And as long as it is fully disclosed and the review is done by the book I am not worried about it.

Edd Gillespie wrote:
What if it is one of those days you are so pissed at Greg you can't even see straight? How do you remain objective about his objectivity when that is going on?

That would be a daily occurrence.

I am very good at keeping business and personal separate and keeping my objectivity. Hell, I sued the Canadian Minister of Fisheries and won wile maintaining a friendly relationship with him and and his staff.

I have reviewed reports of appraisers I am friendly with. Again .... there is a line between personal and business.

Corporate Lackey wrote:So Annemieke, what if the appraisal is a piece of crap?

I am not going to take that question seriously as GP is one of the best and most competent appraisers out there.

However, if there are things in the report that I don't agree with I have no problem saying so.

Jrs at OBX wrote:I
Personally, if I was an underwriter for a bank and I noticed the same company name on the original report and the review of that report, not only would I demand totally new reports but I would seriously consider asking the board for their opinion on the matter. It doesn't look right. You should both know better, especially since you both perform some review functions for the state board. Wouldn't it raise a red flag if you were investigating an appraisal and a review from the same office? You know it would.

No it wouldn't. I would make sure the disclosure was there and the review was in compliance with USAP. End of story.

Besides, as I said ...... the clients we do this for request that we do that. These are direct assignments from them.

Look, I didn't get this far in life by being a scaredy cat. As long as there is no USPAP violation, as long as I do everything above board and I can sleep at night all is well.

Edd Gillespie wrote:
What if it is one of those days you are so pissed at Greg you can't even see straight?

She wakes up that way................